Published: May 8th 2023, 12:00:02 pm
Derrick blinked, the words taking a moment to sink in, partially because it didn't seem like they could be true. They were there already? How had that happened?! It had felt like only a second or two ago that he'd started watching, that he'd gotten so absorbed in what he was positive would be his new littlespace show. It was just so... perfect, absolutely bursting with big baby energy. He'd never seen anything quite like it, not that he'd spent a ton of time watching kids' TV lately.
It was a bit odd for a show to be so actively encouraging kids to use their diapers, to act immaturely. As far as he remembered, most shows appealed to kids' desires to grow up, showing them doing the opposite, helping show them ways they could be more mature, more responsible... That certainly wasn't the case with Naomi and Oliver, and he supposed that might be why it existed, to be a counter-point for all that other programming.
Even so, he had to wonder if it went a bit too far... They weren't just encouraging kids to be kids, they were encouraging them to be outright babies, down to the diapers both of the main characters wore and happily utilized. It was hard to tell who the target audience for the show was... Not kids who were in the midst of potty training, that was sure, and it seemed dangerous for those who had recently graduated from it as well, practically begging for a backslide from them. He doubted most kids much older than that would want to be caught watching something so babyish, but the way the characters spoke to their audience sounded almost too advanced for anyone younger.
It was weird, there was no question about that; still, he was happy it existed, and happy his Nanny had put it on for him. He wouldn't have minded sitting in the car and watching some more, though Naomi and Oliver had encouraged him to go outside and run around, so he was glad to have a chance to follow their example.
"Okay, Nanny," he nodded, letting her unbuckle him, to take his hand and help him out of the booster seat and the car. The world outside felt so much bigger now, somehow, as he faced it in his diapers and his shortalls, though not necessarily in a scary way, like he'd expected. He did notice he'd started to suck on his pacifier automatically, but he didn't think it was out of anxiety, just enjoyment for the sensation of it.
He obediently stood by, watching her get the diaper bag and sling it over her shoulder, then took her hand and toddled alongside her down the sidewalk, diapers crinkling pleasantly. It took him a minute or two, after they'd passed several people, to recall that he'd intended to ask if he could stop using his paci when they got to the park, that he'd been scared to be seen with it.
It was too late for that now, he told himself. Nobody had given him a second look yet, had shown any signs that they'd found any part of his ensemble unusual. And why should they? They must have seen countless toddlers being taken to the playground, and that was all he was, wasn't it? Just a silly little toddler, out with his Nanny...
"So, Derrick," Nanny smiled at him as they reached their destination, bending over to adjust the shoulder strap of his shortalls. "What do you want to do first?"
His eyes widened as he looked around at the playground, seeing that he really did have his pick, basically. Unsurprisingly, she knew the ins and outs of this, of the best times to go, and it was nearly empty, ready and waiting for him to do as he pleased. There was one babysitter with a pair of twins over in the far sandbox, but from the look of things, they were winding down, preparing to head home, probably for naptime.
"Slide!" he clapped his hands, burbling behind his paci. "Can I ride the slide?"
"Of course!" Nanny beamed. "Do you want the big one or the little one?"
He furrowed his brow, peering up at her, then around the playground. He'd only noticed one, and it was difficult to call it 'big', exactly... It was metal, gleaming in the sun, with enough room for a couple bumps on the way down, and not much else. It took a moment to discover the other, it was so small, a yellow plastic tube poking out from one end of a brightly colored playset, every part of it a different color. The slide itself was no taller than he was, a ride in it sure to be over almost before it began.
And yet... He did find himself being drawn to it, perhaps because the palette was so similar to that of the show that was still so fresh in his mind. It had a huge abacus, some big, flat platforms to climb on, some with big, round windows to look through - not that he suspected he'd need them, since even he was probably tall enough to look over them, and the walls they were set inside - a miniature rock-climbing wall no more than a few feet high so that anyone who lost their balance wasn't likely to fall far enough to get hurt, and a bridge connecting the different segments.
It was absolutely meant for very little kids... It didn't even have any monkey bars! Wasn't that what he was right now, though? "We should start small... Right?" he giggled up at Nanny.
"That is such a good idea," she praised him. "It's always better to work your way up, isn't it? No need to rush anything!"
That was exactly what Naomi and Oliver said! No need to rush growing up, or getting out of diapers, or any of that stuff! He nodded, pleased with himself for having learned the show's lesson, taking her hand again to waddle to the playset where she stood back, sending him towards it with a pat on the bottom and an order to, "Have fun!"
He could have gone straight for the slide, since that was what he'd said he wanted initially; with everything else there, however, that seemed like a waste. The handholds for the climbing wall were small, a bit difficult to get a good grip on, but considering the top was so low, he barely needed them anyway, only having to pause briefly to make sure his Velcro sneakers were, indeed, on top of one of them before he was scrambling up onto the platform above.
"I did it!" he told Nanny.
She smiled encouragingly. "You did!" she confirmed. "Great work, sweetie!"
The difference in height between the other platforms was small enough to make it easy for even the littlest occupants to make their way around without difficulty. For him, it hardly felt like he was going upwards at all as he hopped from one to the other, pausing to move the giant plastic beads of the abacus back and forth.
"How many is that?" Nanny called.
Derrick glanced down at the beads, then shrugged. "I dunno!" There were enough he couldn't tell at a glance, and stopping to count them all wasn't how he wanted to spend his time here... He just enjoyed seeing them slide from one side to the other.
"That's okay," she said. "I'm sure they'll teach you your numbers at preschool any day now!"
The words sent a shiver of pleasure down his spine. They sounded so natural, so true, coming from her, not like they were playing pretend... It was like he was really was a preschooler, one so little he hadn't learned to count, so how could he possibly be expected to use the potty, either? He was too small for all of that!
He crouched down as he passed the big, round, plastic windows so he could wave to Nanny through them, then, at last, found himself at the slide he'd come up here for in the first place. By then, he wasn't feeling self conscious about it at all, or silly to be bothering with something so short. Now, it seemed just right for him as he sat down, giggling as he heard his diaper's crinkles echoing all around him in the tunnel, surrounding him like the soft, bulky embrace of the diaper itself.
One push, and one whoosh, and he was outside on the rubber tiles surrounding the playset, being helped back to his feet by Nanny. "How was that?" she asked, brushing him off. "Was it fun? Do you wanna do it again?"
He grinned from behind his pacifier and nodded, clambering back up the platforms to the slide and pushing himself down, landing at her feet to repeat the process. It took a few times for him to remember the other slide, the one he'd spotted first, that he was supposedly working his way up to. Looking over at it now, it felt so much taller, so much scarier...
"Do you want to try that one now?" Nanny asked, following his gaze to see what he was staring at.
He squirmed. "Umm..." He knew it wasn't actually that big, or that crazy, that nothing on this playground was... After spending his time on this playset, however, it seemed like a huge step up. "Swings?"
Nanny chuckled. "Sure," she said. "We can play on the swings first." Swings were always popular, so there were plenty of them hanging from the bar, Derrick slowly wandering past them, pretending to inspect them. "Whichever one you want," Nanny told him, a gentle reminder that they were there to do more than look.
He shot a glance towards the sandbox to confirm that the twins and their sitter had, indeed, left, before he made his decision. He wasn't sure what he would have done if he hadn't seen that they were heading off down the sidewalk, if he would have chickened out or not, but it didn't matter.
"Nanny?" he peered back at her. "C-Can we try those?"
She smiled. "I had a feeling you might want that," she replied. "Come on, up you go!"
She picked him up, lifting him into the high-backed plastic embrace of the infant's swing seat. He blushed and squirmed as he slid down, his diaper rubbing against the bar that rose up right in the center of the seat to keep the rider from slipping out, yet, to his surprise, he did fit, and it wasn't uncomfortably tight.
"All good?" Nanny asked, and he nodded, wiggling in place while she stepped behind him and began to push, earning another giggle from him as he leaned back lazily, watching the world glide by, back and forth, everything so peaceful and serene, him not even having to worry about holding onto the ropes holding the seat up like he might on one of the swings for older kids. He didn't have a care in the world.
Except... His tummy was starting to hurt a bit, wasn't it? He wriggled, sucking a bit harder on his pacifier. He knew what this meant, had been both afraid, and excited, about the prospect of it happening while he was here, with Nanny, considering the rule she'd given him last time he'd been at her place. Would it extend to when they were out and about? Was she seriously going to ban him from using the toilet here?
Did he want her to? Naomi and Oliver definitely wouldn't want that... And there was nobody else around, so it was like being at her house, almost, except that anyone could show up at any moment, either out here, or in the bathroom while he was getting changed...
The bathroom! His face began to warm, imagining that. Would Nanny really take him into the women's room to change him? Unless she was going to do it outside - and he was certain she wouldn't - she'd have to... Even if the door locked from the inside, someone could see him being led out after they were done, would know he was so little that, at best, he had to be supervised while he went potty...
Maybe he could wait until they got back home... Or, probably, he could wait until after that, if he had to, until he was in his apartment and had access to the bathroom as much as he wanted...
But... That wasn't what Naomi and Oliver would want him to do... And it was all going so well right now. He didn't want to have to spend the rest of the afternoon thinking about holding it in... Like his new friends had told him, that would just make him feel uncomfortable, and that wasn't any fun!
He gulped, nursing on his paci harder and harder, starting to get almost light-headed the more he thought about it, the more real it began to seem. All he needed to do was the same thing Nanny was doing to him, every time he felt the back of his swing connect with her hands before it was shoved outwards again reminding him, making the word ring in his ears encouragingly.
'Push,' the voice in his mind told him, sounding so very much like Naomi, and then, the next time, like Oliver. 'Push.'